Selected Works

non-fiction books and articles

Highlighting 16 qualities that make a great person and lead to spiritual awakening, this is the first book to feature the life and teachings of Anagarika Munindra, the meditation master who taught so many of today's prominent dharma teachers in the West and helped start the contemporary mindfulness movement.

Living This Life Fully

Recently, Dean Crabb a.k.a. Jagaro generously hosted a double book give-away on his blog themindfulmoment.com/. He asked readers to express what “living this life fully” means. The variety of responses left me reflecting on how differently people understand the same words. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness of those who sent in an answer. A few people even expressed themselves through poetry. Although there could be only two winners, I feel that everyone is a winner, simply because each person took time to consider this concept.

When someone asked Munindra, “What is the Dharma?” he would answer, “The Dharma is living the life fully.” If we turn the question around and ask, “What is living this life fully?” Then we could easily say, “Living this life fully is the Dharma.” But that still doesn’t describe the details. Munindra explained them best in the way that he lived: with generosity, compassion, patience, determination, discernment, loving-kindness, mindfulness, equanimity, conviction, integrity, virtuous conduct, one-pointedness of mind, effort, curiosity, vigor, joy, and letting go.

Some people who sent comments to Jagaro touched on these qualities. For example, "Anonymous” wrote:

To live life fully is to live in the now, No matter its joys or woes. To be in the moment, not future or past, Before your eyes finally close.

To love being human, to laugh at this all, We’re here one moment then gone....

Munindra certainly loved being alive. He was lighthearted and laughed easily while living each moment mindfully, no matter what he was engaged in doing.

Candle Summers offered the following: “Living life fully means receiving what life presents joyously and with compassion. Finding ways to live with equanimity so that the mind doesn’t fall into extremes, and touching peace by letting go completely.” Munindra did receive what life presented to him with joy and equipoise. He knew how to let go of unwholesome states and cultivate wholesome ones, even in the face of physical and emotional suffering. Once, when a student told him he had a bad headache, Munindra encouraged him to keep practicing: “I hope you’re enjoying it.” He wasn’t being flippant or uncaring about the man’s condition. Rather, he meant, I hope you’re curious about your experience, remaining present with and learning from it.

Ity Sofer summed this up: “To live life fully means to experience the ever changing nature of the body and mind, allowing past conditionings to arise and pass away, without clinging or aversion, realizing by it that there is no ‘I’. This freedom, being in each moment aware and equanimous, with loving-kindness to all, is to live life fully.”

I have just completed reading the book ''Living This Life Fully.''<br>I have met and served Munindraji at Dhamma Giri between 1994 to 2002. I was talking to him daily. serving his daily meals in tiffin box, full 5 compartments, with all the variety of dishes cooked in Dhamma Giri kitchen. Although Munindraji ate very little, he was very choosy about his food. but always first asking me whether I have eaten my food. He would offer some fruit to me every day, mostly a banana, always giving some advice on meditation for a novice like me. I asked him about the mind and thought; first verse of Dhammapada was his answer: <i>Mano pubamgama dhamma...</i> He asked me to be aware of the body sensations all the time, particularly of soles of feet, because I brought his food without wearing any chappals or sandals.<br>Alas, I never knew how great he was in his attainments on path of Dhamma. Was he <i>anagami</i>? I now think, "why did I not ask him more about Dhamma while visiting the cremation ground adjacent to Dhamma Giri?"<br>I am thankful to dear dhamma sister Mirka.<br>